Providing a Pathway to Prosperity with Renewable Energy
(August 12, 2009 - Las Vegas) Jim Croce, president and CEO of the Nevada Institute for Renewable Energy Commercialization (NIREC), yesterday called on NSHE to accelerate its collaboration activities with the renewable energy industry to help resolve Nevada’s economic crisis. In a talk titled “Education and Energy Innovation: NSHE’s Central Role in Transforming Nevada’s Economy,” delivered at the 2009 UNLV Renewable Energy Symposium in Las Vegas, Croce examined the interplay of education attainment levels, technology innovation-based employment, and Nevada’s future prosperity. Croce pinpointed how NSHE and Nevada’s renewable energy industry can team up to restore the state’s economy.
“The drop in entertainment-based revenues during the current recession has had significant impact on Nevada’s wealth at the state level and for its residents,” said Croce. “A commitment to innovating renewable energy products and services, combined with support from our universities and community colleges and research institutes, can provide more positive economic outcomes for our state by providing both lower- and higher-educational attainment jobs.”
Noting the value of high concentrations of talent, knowledge, creativity and entrepreneurship to the state’s economic success, Croce called for Nevada to produce or attract higher-educational-attainment (knowledge-based) industries to the state and for increase investment in education, technology transfer, and entrepreneurship to strengthen Nevada’s renewable energy innovation ecosystem.
Croce acknowledged one of the critical challenges for researchers and entrepreneurs: the process of moving new sustainable energy products from the lab to the marketplace. NIREC was founded to help alleviate these challenges and accelerate the introduction of energy technologies into the marketplace, by bringing together researchers, experienced entrepreneurs, and early stage capital providers into strategic collaborations.
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"We see billions of dollars flowing into clean-tech, but very few organizations working as effectively as NIREC to make sure that breakthrough products can 'cross the chasm' to commercialization."
- Jim Davis, President, Chevron Energy Solutions
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